They are where they deserve to be, what do you expect from that drivers line-up, it’s true that their financial situation is crap but i don’t that it is worse than Marussia which has given all the other teams a great lesson, teams need to think seriously about young talented drivers

Still, Gutierrez and Sutil aren’t that incredibly bad, they’re just not able to out-drive the car, which is what this year’s Sauber really needs. I don’t think Hulkenberg would have done much better, they’d need 2000-2004 Schumacher and 1988-1991 Senna to score points regularly with this car..

@spoutnik It’s not entirely fair to judge both drivers on their performances today; nobody is writing off Raikkonen or Perez after today either.

I’m not sure Hulkenberg would have been higher up than Gutierrez was when he crashed out, though. Hulkenberg didn’t finish higher up than 8th last year until the car really improved either. And; ‘not much better’ is still better than, so Hulkenberg would have probably actually finished, unlike Sutil and Gutierrez.

@npf1 Gutierrez had the benefit of doubt, considering it was a difficult year of the team and it was Hulk on the other side of the garage, but then you see the drivers market and you HIRE SUTIL?! SUTIL! a guy that’s done nothing in 7 years…

They deserve last place. No sympathy towards Sauber this year, I’ve said it so many times already…

Sauber has made some pretty poor calls lately, especially hiring Sutil, yes. I really like Sauber, though, but having 2 drivers I don’t care for does make it hard to feel bad for them.

Sutil is a safe pair of hands, but never looked better than Fisichella, Hulkenberg or Di Resta. I guess his sponsorship deals kept him in F1, though I can’t help but feel Sauber aren’t exactly happy with him as they’re singing VDGs praises a lot.

IMO it’s not only the uninspiring driver line up, but since Peter retired the swiss team has been going downhill. Too many bad calls in and out the track. They couldn’t keep James Key with them and see what he is been doing with Toro Rosso and at the same time their design staff seems to have no clue as their last cars have shown; they usually come with very bad qualifying and race strategies; last year best asset was Hulkenberg and they let him go too; their current reserve (or afilliated) drivers are only average and instead they couldn’t secure Frijns; the marketing department can’t come with sponsorship deals and they are blinded with the promise of some russian money. So it comes as no surprise that they are at the bottom of the points table.

Very sad, as I really like the once tidy and constant midfield team from Hinwill. Peter please come back!!!!

Sauber are not last though; the table is misleading. Sauber is still (slightly) ahead of Caterham:

Both Sauber and Caterham have one 11th place (Sutil in Melbourne, Ericsson in Monaco), but Sauber also have a 12th place (Gutierrez in Melbourne). Caterham only have two 13th places (Kobayashi in Malaysia and Monaco).

Sauber are not last though; the table is misleading. Sauber is still (slightly) ahead of Caterham:

Both Sauber and Caterham have one 11th place (Sutil in Melbourne, Ericsson in Monaco), but Sauber also have a 12th place (Gutierrez in Melbourne). Caterham only have two 13th places (Kobayashi in Malaysia and Monaco).

I am a big fan of RoGro but even I was hoping he would somehow finish behind Bianchi so that Marussia were gonna get their first points, and I was bummed after hearing about his penalties… gotta thank Raikkonen and Magnussen for letting it happen :P

Really pleased that Marussia managed this! Jules raced really well today. Yes, the had luck from retirments but the pressure didn’t get to them and Jules managed to get the 2 points. I think most of us would like it if they had the 4 points but rules are rules and I believe that sadly has to apply. Great for them!

Awesome drive from Bianchi… Was very tensed when RoGro got the gap to less than 5s but incident between Kimi and Kevin made the day for Jules… Massively happy for Jules and Marussia… Bad luck for Ericsson as he finished 11th jus striking distance to points..

I’m happy for Marussia, they are based about 5 mins from where I live! (well 95% of the other teams are too, but Marussia are closest…) It’s unfortunate that Nico’s win has been tainted by the qualifying incident, but I think if it hadn’t happened Hamilton would have got pole and would have won.

OK, I respect your list, but I think ALO is too low in the list. Should be like 3rd-4th. Rating the Mercedes drivers so high when they have a car at least +1second faster than any other car… is unfair. Remember that in the first races Ferrari was weak, even Williams was at certain stages of the races a lot faster than ALO/RAI. Also, why’s VET so high ?!? RBR was faster than Ferrari in Qualies and the Races right from the start of the season. Being a 4-time champ beaten by the team mate…. that’s quite a high place for VET. Just my opinions……

Vettel didn’t do anything impressive this season to match the hype of a 4-time WDC and for a driver who’s racing the 2nd best car on the grid ! What I expect from VET to rate him as high as 5th is to split the Mercedes, for example.

@corrado-dub
While I agree Alonso should be higher and ahead of Vettel so far, if he split the Mercedes you might as well rate him all the way up to 1st given that you (presumably) agree Ricciardo is 1st and even he hasn’t accomplished that… rating him 5th only if he accomplished such a feat? Don’t be so biased.

@corrado-dub
While I agree Alonso should be higher and ahead of Vettel so far, if he split the Mercedes you might as well rate him all the way up to 1st given that you (presumably) agree Ricciardo is 1st and even he hasn’t accomplished that… rating him 5th only if he accomplished such a feat? Please be more objective.

Yeah, it depends how you see things: RIC is more or less a “nobody”. Not even 1 win for RIC. While Vettel….. is a 4-time WDC, en-title driver, more F1 experience. So, in my opinion, Vettel should do more than RIC in order to be praised in the same way. For ex, RIC might impress with a 1-car pass, but not Vettel anymore. To be just as impressive, Vettel now has to make a 2-car pass ! ;))) That’s something I call impressive enough to be mentioned for a 4-time WDC.

Anyway, maybe I exagerated with splitting the Mercs, they seems too far ahead, but at least dominating RIC and trying to catch the 2nd Merc is something impossible for Vettel at the moment.

@corrado-dub
Yes, Vettel has a lot more at stake compared to Ricciardo but that shouldn’t determine his ranking. Vettel is actually doing a decent job and yes, while I agree he has underperformed and is not meeting expectations, that doesn’t mean he should be ranked so lowly… unless we’re comparing actual performances to expected performances, in which case Räikkönen would be at the bottom and Ricciardo at the top.

@corrado-dub
To make my point clearer, at the moment it’s either Maldonado or Chilton who are the worst drivers and they should be ranked 21st/22nd but nobody expects them to perform well anyway unlike Räikkönen… but you are judging based on expectations VS reality which shouldn’t be the case.

1.HAM-The man has been on it. If it wasn’t for the bad luck in Australia and Monaco qualifying he would be 6 for 6. Just needs to be a bit nicer on the radio.
2. RIC-Very good races in China and Bahrain. He hasn’t really missed a beat in qualifying and even though Seb has had tough luck, Daniel probably would beaten him those times as well.
3. HUL-Aside from Bahrain where for about five minutes in qualifying and race he forgot how to drive, he has been perfect and by far the most consistent driver.
4. ALO-Been the Alonso of old on some days but hasn’t always been that impressive. He gets props for being so much faster than Kimi though so he deserves this place.
5. ROS-Not making it into the top 3 of any DOTW so far as I write this tells the story. Good but not good enough. Today he was great, but his Q3 blunders in Australia, China and Monaco show he has away to go before he can beat Hamilton often. This win though shows that he is still in the fight.
6. VET-As a 4 time champion, he has disappointed. His races have been okay and his qualifying has varied from good but making mistakes(Malaysia) to hopelessly nowhere(China). In some ways his reliability gives him an excuse, for example yesterday, it probably wouldn’t make a difference. Lets just hope he keeps driving like he did in Spain because I still think he’s the man to be best of the rest.
7. GRO-You really feel for the guy. It’s obviously a tricky situation to be in and his calmness and composure show that Romain is the man to match his speed.
8. BUT-So far I think he’s been underrated. Race pace and strategy have been strong and he is holding his own against a very fast Magnussen. For a champion, he is underperforming, but he is by far not the worst culprit of this.
9. BOT-Excellent in moments ,like his start in Spain, but there is no real stand out performance besides Australia, and in that he should have been on the podium.
10. BIA-Driving well but hasn’t really stood out before this race. Although, in this race, he most defiantly stood out.

@theo-hrp I agree with your rankings, but I beg to differ with regards to Vettel for Monaco… I’m not particularly a fan of ifs and buts but Vettel had a pretty realistic chance of beating Ricciardo in both qualifying and race if his car actually cooperated; he was actually faster than Ricciardo in Q2 when his ERS was working and he was ahead of Ricciardo in the race until his car went kaput. Ricciardo only conclusively beat Vettel in Bahrain and Shanghai and while I agree he was impressive in the remaining races he finished (All sans Malaysia where Vettel would have finished ahead regardless of that pitstop blunder), Vettel never had the chance to show what he could accomplished against Ricciardo on equal footing and it would be unfair to write him off solely based on that. Of course, Ricciardo has proven what he could do unlike Vettel, so based on that I agree he should be ranked ahead but just saying.

I think it’s a bit unfair. Kimi was doing a very good job today. He was in third place before Chilton decided that he didn’t want that. I think that in the last couple of races he’s finally showing why he is a world champion, but he’s been quite unlucky.

He was already frustrated by then for Chilton ruining his 3rd place race. 8th place with a few points just don’t feel that good at that point and you start taking more risks. Without Chilton’s incident, Mag incident wouldn’t have happened either and very solid 3rd place was on the sight. First thing affected the second.

@lari Kimi has had is best days though look at the gap in qually i mean when Kimi does better than FA it is like 0.005. When Alo beats Rai the gap is closer to a second he as been well out thought so far like 2nd half vs GRO last year even without the bad back.

I was at the Young Drivers Test at Silverstone last year, and we got a chance to go into the pitlane at the end of a great session and have a look at the teams. A lot of teams put out ‘show cars’ with bits from different years. I think I identified one car as having rear wing, exhausts and front nose all from different years. One team didn’t. They put a current car out.
A lot of teams just had a few minor mechanics out giving out ‘driver cards’. One team didn’t, they had their test driver out there talking. Me and my Dad got talking to another guy from the same team. He said that at events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, most F1 teams run older cars due to the testing restrictions. They didn’t, running the 2013 car, with the 2013 engine and drivers. They had to apply to the FIA as part of their testing day count. They did it for the fans.
Coming away from that Silverstone test, I looked up on my phone to check who that man was. I was right in my suspicions. The man was Graham Lowdon, the team was Marrussia. From that day I gave the Marrussia team my full respect, always hoping they would make that move into the points at long last.
I asked Graham whether he thought Marrussia could get points in 2014. He said he hoped so. I’m so glad they scored points today

Marussia have just stormed into the lead of the WBC (World Backmarkers Championship) well done boys. Great news for them and Max Chilton is solid at the back. No amount of talent can take away his ability to consistently finish Grand Prix. The real pride of British racing talent

Like most F1 fans, I think its wonderful that Marussia are off the bottom of the WCC table, and are likely to stay that way. Sauber might pull off some decent results down the line but Caterham are unlikely to finish in the points at all this season, let alone better 9th.
Again, great news for Marussia. I’d love to see them turn into a strong team.